The image of the communist torturer as reflected

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First and foremost, we deemed that it was necessary to make a descriptive and interpretative analysis of the physical and moral profile of the Romanian oppressor, as well as a thorough inquiry into the language and gestures of torturers drawing on the pattern developed by researcher François Thom. Secondly, we intended to outline a portrait of the torturer both from a historical and a psychohistorical perspective, although in Romania there is high wariness of bringing up a topic which requires an insight at the crossroads between history and psychohistory or history and psychoanalysis. Another guideline of this dissertation was to draft a few categories of torturers, to penetrate the complex „mechanism” between investigator and defendant and to present this relationship by referring to the case study of Elisabeta Rizea and its torturers. A special emphasis was placed on memorizing and rememorizing the suffering inflicted in the Romanian Gulag and on the manner in which the prisoners related to their traumatic past. Also, we deemed it necessary to present profiles of wardens, men and women, such as Vasile Ciolpan, Petrache Goiciu, Vida Nedici and Elena Tudor. It is worth noting that hitherto, except for Ruxandra Cesereanu, Doina Jela, Andrei Muraru, Dumitru Lăcătuşu, Alin Mureşan, Mircea Stănescu, Florian Banu, Andrea Fürtös and Robert Fürtös, other historians and specialists in the Romanian Gulag did not focus so intensely on recreating the profiles of such torturers. Hence, we aimed to perform a synthesis of the study of Romanian communist wardens by revolving around the memoirs not so large in scope of the prison space, but which are at least self-evident through the approach undertaken and the selection and analysis of the profiles of wardens. Through this dissertation we also aimed to outline as detailed as possible the terminological boundaries of the incarceration memoirs, their role and functions, and how these plausible sources are located within the confines of history and literature bearing more of a documentary-historical value than an esthetic-literary one. In our reflection we have not downplayed the broad presentation of the autobiographic writings which contributed more or less to the recreation of the profile of the Romanian torturer and of other aspects as well, such as the way in which the prisoners perceived the prison and the incarceration regime. 4
For the sake of coherence and argumentation in a historical analysis we used research interrogations in order to achieve a concentration of the investigation field and to outline a generic design of the variables and concepts. Questions such as: How can we define a torturer? How many types of torturers are there? How did prisoners describe them physically and morally? What kind of torturers were, for instance, Vasile Ciolpan and Petrache Goiciu, all allowed us to have a structured approach and to devise a few clear and coherent research hypotheses. Before studying the members of the communist repressive machine or before undertaking any scientific research one must have a good command of the specific research methodology. 2 Since this dissertation pertains to the field of social sciences, and using extensive interpretation and analysis, we performed qualitative research 3 in a thorough examination of the knowledge on this field of study. Methodological interdisciplinarity was used in order to reflect the multiple perspectives of this study – historical and psychological (psychohistorical), and to represent the complexity of the topic. Another research method referred to the hermeneutics of the incarceration memoirs and archival documents (the different minutes, autobiographies, statements and reports found in the personnel records of torturers such as Vasile Ciolpan). In these personnel files useful information can help retrace the biographical profiles of the wardens, also providing references about the physical and behavioral profiles of the former inquisitors. Setting up the relationship between cause and effect (the method of historical causality) when studying the communist torturers reflects the need to have a thorough 2 In the analysis of historical topics such as the study of the Romanian communist torturers, with an emphasis on the research techniques and methods, the following works are indispensable: E. H. Carr, What is history ?, London : Penguin, 1961; Charles H. Feinstein and Mark Thomas, Making History Count. A Primer Quantitative Methods for Historians, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002; Alun. Munslow, Deconstructing History, London: Routledge, 1997; Jerzy Topolsky, Metodologia istoriei, Traducere de Anca Ţapu, Bucureşti : Ştiinţificã şi Enciclopedicã, 1987. 3 Jonathan Grix, in the book Demistificarea cercetării postuniversitare. De la masterat la doctorat, Traducere de Nicolae Melinescu (under print), pp. 40-48, makes a clear delimitation between qualitative and quantitative research methods. 5
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The image of the communist torturer as reflected

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